GE HealthCare $GEHC falls 9% after 2026 EPS guide cut to $4.80-$5.00

GE HealthCare $GEHC fell 9% in premarket trading after cutting its 2026 adjusted EPS outlook to $4.80-$5.00, even though first-quarter revenue rose 7.4% to $5.13 billion and topped estimates. The miss was not about demand. It was about margins, supplier friction, and an inflation bill that management now expects to last through the rest of the year.

The company's SEC-filed earnings release showed first-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.99, down from $1.01 a year earlier and below the $1.05 consensus cited by Reuters via Yahoo Finance. Diluted EPS fell to $0.85 from $1.23. Revenue reached $5.131 billion, while total orders rose 1.1% organically and backlog ended the quarter at $21.8 billion. Adjusted EBIT margin slipped to 13.5% from 15.0%, hit by a pharmaceutical-diagnostics supplier issue, tariffs, and weaker patient-care solutions performance.

Guidance is what reset the stock. GE HealthCare cut its full-year adjusted EBIT margin view to 15.4%-15.7% from 15.8%-16.1%, trimmed adjusted EPS to $4.80-$5.00 from $4.95-$5.15, and lowered free cash flow guidance to about $1.6 billion from $1.7 billion. CEO Peter Arduini said memory chips, oil, and freight costs rose sharply in the first quarter and are assumed to remain a headwind through 2026.

There were offsets. Imaging revenue rose 7.4% to $2.299 billion, pharmaceutical diagnostics revenue jumped 21.7% to $770 million, and the company kept its organic revenue growth outlook unchanged at 3.0%-4.0%. But investors usually punish medical-technology names when revenue holds up and margin guidance does not, because that combination tells the market pricing power is lagging cost pressure.

The next check is whether the supplier issue stays contained and whether price and cost actions can claw back more than half of the inflation hit, as management expects. If not, the quarter will be remembered less for a 7.4% top-line beat and more for the first evidence that 2026 healthcare equipment demand is arriving with much thinner operating leverage.

Not investment advice. Verify all figures with primary sources before acting.